[lit-ideas] Re: 9th edition of the EB
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2007 16:16:26 -0330
My thought here was simply that the category of morality is properly applicable
only to beings who are fallible and who reason to conclusions regarding what to
do or believe on the basis of premises. Any being who does not and cannot so
act - such as the God of Christianity and Judaism - is unable to judge, act or
will either morally or immorally.
I know little about mythological texts such as the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc, but
I venture the suggestion that perhaps you should not interpret them as
literally as you seem to be doing. After all, the idea of taking your shoes off
when confonted with a burning bush that simply won't stop is surely not
primarily a recitation of empirical fact or event. The purposes of maintaining
community through narrative, worship and tradition always trump empirical fact.
But these not philosophical matters so I should cease and desist.
Not believing in God but believing in the belief in God,
Walter Okshevsky
Quoting Mike Geary <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> WO:
> > I am reminded of this because I believe that "morality"/"immorality"
> > cannot
> > apply to an omniscient, omnipotent being. So whatever you were doing at
> > the
> > time, you could not possibly have been writing about the immorality of
> > God.
>
>
> I'm not so sure. Have you read the Old Testament? It's hard for me to see
> how God could be judged other than immoral. His crimes would screamed to
> heaven had they been committed by a stupid human, much less an omniscient,
> omnipotent being. What human court of justice would make all the
> descendents of a murderer die in the electric chair as well as the murderer
> himself? What human conscience could possibly conscience the burning to
> death of hundreds of thousands of people in two cities because they were at
> odds with own their beliefs -- OK, yes, the American conscience, but who's
> else? God, as I've seen him represented is the most vicious, tyrannical,
> small-minded being in the world, except for Christian Evangelicals, so I
> don't have any problem calling God immoral. Let's just hope he's not
> immortal.
>
> Mike Geary
> Memphis
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <wokshevs@xxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Ursula Stange" <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 12:54 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: 9th edition of the EB
>
>
> > Quoting Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> >
> > snip
> >> Ursula, writing about the immorality of God for a lecture at 8:30
> >> tomorrow morning.
> >
> > Such a time for such a lecture ought to be declared morally impermissible.
> > (Something like scheduling a grade 10 math class for that same time.)
> >
> > But your topic reminds me of the time RP dressed me down for asking
> > something
> > like "How does one spell 'P'?", where 'P' was misspelled. Of course there
> > can
> > be no possible answer to that question since there is no such word as 'P.'
>
> > RP
> > defended his view with extended quotations from Plato, all referring to
> > the
> > impossibility of searching for the nonexistent, so who am I to disagree
> > with
> > Plato.
> >
> > I am reminded of this because I believe that "morality"/"immorality"
> > cannot
> > apply to an omniscient, omnipotent being. So whatever you were doing at
> > the
> > time, you could not possibly have been writing about the immorality of
> > God.
> >
> > Makes one wonder about the epistemic authority of our own intentions and
> > self-knowledge.
> >
> >
> > Fallibly hypothesizing an intention of clarification,
> >
> > Walter O.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Or maybe it's my puny understanding....
> >>
> >> Lawrence Helm wrote:
> >> >
> >> > So one must go to the Index, Volume 25, find which volume the article
> >> > you want is in, e.g., volume 4; close Volume 25 and open Volume 4.
> >> > The page number you copied down from the Index will not help you find
> >> > this article with any accuracy in Volume 4 because the page numbers in
> >> > the Encyclopedia do not match the page numbers in the Adobe Reader.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > There seems to be room for improvement here.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Lawrence
> >> >
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> >
> >
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